The apparatus of this invention pertains to a motorcycle/sidecar apparatus which is occupied and operated by a wheelchair confined person. Representative of the prior art is U.S. Pat. No. 4,221,276.
One of the most serious obstacles which faces a wheelchair-confined person is that of distance. The world of the seriously handicapped can be tightly confined inasmuch as travel requires the assistance of one or more people and/or expensive equipment, such as a specially prepared van. The cost of such equipment and the cost and availability of such assistants limit many handicapped persons to a life largely confined to their home and environs.
This forced immobility and lack of independence contributes greatly to that feeling of helplessness and lack of self-esteem which many handicapped find to be more debilitating than even their physical problems.
There are, of course, degrees of physical impairment which requires wheelchair confinement. A paraplegic will typically have full use of the upper body and can perform normal functions of the fingers, hands, arms and shoulders. Much more seriously impaired in the quadraplegic, who will typically have only elbow-flex capabilities and will not have the full use of hands or fingers. As would be expected, the problems encountered by the quadraplegic are much greater than those facing the paraplegic. Many of the devices which will work for the paraplegic will not be useable by the quadraplegic. For example, the sidecar device disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,221,276 merely relocates conventional motorcycle hand controls onto the sidecar. These conventional controls require that the operator have normal or nearly normal use of his hands and fingers. Accordingly, a quadraplegic would not be able to use the sidecar in U.S. Pat. No. 4,221,276.
It is therefore the object of this invention to provide a sidecar which may be attached to a conventional motorcycle, and which utilizes the conventional throttling and braking systems of the conventional motorcycle, but which are adapted for operation by a quadraplegic having no more than elbow flex movement capabilities.